California teen who streamed fatal crash pleads no contest

UPDATE: 1/23/2018 2:14 p.m. A California teen has pleaded no contest to charges she was driving drunk while livestreaming the crash that killed her younger sister.

The Fresno Bee reported Tuesday that 19-year-old Obdulia Sanchez pleaded no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving, child endangerment charges and several enhancements.

Sanchez was driving a car that veered onto the shoulder of the road on July 21 in central California.

Authorities say she overcorrected, causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn, ejecting and killing her 14-year-old sister.

Prosecutors say Sanchez livestreamed on Instagram while driving and the video shows her taking her hands from the steering wheel.

The recording shows her after the crash, leaning over her lifeless sister.

She entered her plea in Merced County Superior Court, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of San Francisco.

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A California woman defended herself after livestreaming a car crash that killed her younger sister.
Officials said Obdulia Sanchez was driving drunk and livestreamed before the crash near Fresno last month.

“I didn’t even know I looked like a monster. Like I look like a freaking horrible monster. That was not my intention at all,” said Sanchez.

Sanchez was referring to the Instagram live video she recorded while driving on July 21. Her sister was in the back seat, along with a friend they had just picked up from Fresno.

Sanchez said, “We were perfectly freaking fine. We were perfectly freaking fine. Then next thing I know, we just started going left. We started going left, then I tried to stop the car. Then we flip over.”

Sanchez’s lawyer said Sanchez had a blowout on Highway 165 and Henry Miller Road. The car flipped and CHP said the two 14-year-old girls in the back seat were not wearing seat belts. Sanchez had been drinking.

“And that’s then when I just started freaking out. And then I look in the back seat and there’s nobody in the back seat, and that’s when I started freaking out,” said Sanchez.

Sanchez’s sister Jacqueline and her friend were thrown from the car. Jacqueline died at the scene.

“I knew she was dead. Because I took her pulse and she had no pulse,” said Sanchez. “I did call for help. I called the cops twice.”

Sanchez continued to livestream after the crash and continued to livestream after calling 911 for help, she even showed her sister’s dead body.

The trio was heading to Stockton for Sanchez’s sister’s catholic confirmation ceremony the next day. Sanchez admitted this was not the first time she’s livestreamed while driving.

“We do it all the time. We do it all the time. Trust me, it’s like a reflex. Like I haven’t crashed, you know? Everybody does it. Everybody does it. They take Snapchats. Everybody does it. Why not? People take video of them in cars like all the time. And I’m only 18. We’re still young,” said Sanchez.

Nearly a month later, Sanchez has pled not guilty to drunk driving and gross vehicular manslaughter. She’s behind bars thinking about what her sister killed in the crash meant to her.

“She’s like my mini-me, like my best friend. She looked just like me. Any time I look at her, it’s like I’m looking at myself. It makes me like it makes me really sad that she’s gone.”

Sanchez said since the crash she has received death threats.

“You’re only going to make my parents suffer more. You’re not going to help anybody else. My parents right now are grieving. They want me back home,” said Sanchez.

Sanchez is adamant she’s sorry about what happened that day.

“Just because I’m not crying a river now on the phone, doesn’t mean I’m not remorseful.” Sanchez said, “If I would’ve known that would have happened that day, I would’ve never left the house.”